


Is this Catfish?

by buoyantsaturn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, its a catfish au, its catfish guys of course somebody's gonna have doubts, leo thinks this is actually catfish, will and nico are in love, will and piper are best friends, will doesnt want to have doubts but he does
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 09:42:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11803455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: He knew how it must look to an outsider, that he was obviously being played by some older, bored housewife, but he was really starting to think that he could fall in love with this boy he met online. Maybe he already had.So after two years, he was finally going to do something about it.Or: im hooked on catfish and this is the product





	Is this Catfish?

**Author's Note:**

> this was gonna be like super short but came out way longer than i'd expected
> 
> honestly how many times can i say catfish in one fic the answer is a lot

Will had met Nico online when he’d been looking for a Christmas gift for his cousin. He liked Mythomagic, which Will knew nothing about, so he asked in some forum on some website. Nico had responded and helped him figure things out, had linked him to his Mythomagic specific Tumblr which explained the game in more depth than Nico had posted in his comments, and after they had continued talking to each other for about a month, had given Will his snapchat and phone number. 

They texted a lot, messaged on Tumblr sometimes after Will had gotten one for himself, and mostly used the chat feature on snapchat - though sometimes Will would send pictures of himself and Nico would take pictures of things he saw that made him think of Will.

Around four months into the conversation, Will had awkwardly asked if Nico was seeing anybody, and when Nico responded with a simple no, Will had asked if maybe he would like to. If he was cool with a long-distance relationship. Online. He knew Will meant him, right? He’d made that clear? And Nico said, yeah, he’d been clear, and yeah, they should try it out. In all of this, Nico had never even hinted at a last name. No initials, nothing. Just Nico.

After a year, Will could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen Nico’s face. They’d tried video chatting twice, but Nico blamed a bad internet connection on his poor camera quality, and closed the chat. He’d snapchatted Will three times with pictures of his face, though each time his face was mostly covered by sunglasses or a hand. Only twice had Nico ever texted him a picture of himself: one of him with a baby sitting in his lap - his nephew, he’d explained - and one of Nico in a dimly lit room, a plastic crown reading  _ 21 _ on his head and a bright smile on his face. Will would never admit it to anyone, but he cherished those two pictures.

Will knew all the signs for a fake internet relationship, don’t get him wrong, but he desperately wanted to believe that his was true. He knew how it must look to an outsider, that he was obviously being played by some older, bored housewife, but he was really starting to think that he could fall in love with this boy he met online. Maybe he already had.

So after two years, he was finally going to do something about it.

He told his friend Piper everything when he asked for her help. She’d seemed skeptical, but had taken notes on everything Will had told her about Nico, and she returned the next day with her friend Leo and a backpack full of camera equipment.

“I binged the entire last season of  _ Catfish _ last night,” Piper told him, setting up her laptop on Will’s kitchen table. “And then, I took all of the information you gave me yesterday and did my best to copy everything that they do.”

“Okay, and why is Leo here?” Will asked, pointing directly into the lens of the camera that Leo had pointed at Will’s face.

“It’s  _ Catfish, _ man!” Leo exclaimed. “We’re making this as real as we can! Just act normal, the cameras aren’t even here.”

“Anyway,” Piper said, and Leo spun the lens toward her instead, “I took those two pictures of Nico you sent me last night and reverse image searched them. They didn’t come up with any results, which is a good thing, because that means he didn’t steal them off the internet somewhere.”

“Anything else?” Will asked biting anxiously at his thumbnail. 

“Next step is searching his phone number to see what results we get from it,” Piper told him. “Could you read it off to me so I can search it?”

Will complied and Piper let out an ‘A-ha!’ when the search resulted in a single match - a fifty-seven year old man by the name of Hades di Angelo.

“Dude,  _ di Angelo?” _ Leo yelled. “Like, famous music producer di Angelo? Is that really the same guy?”

“It looks like it,” Piper said hesitantly, before turning toward her best friend. “Will, on a scale from one to ten, how sure are you that you’re  _ not _ talking to Hades di Angelo?”

“Ten,” Will answered immediately. “I am one hundred percent positive that I have not spent the last two years talking to some bored executive who’s married with children. Nico’s twenty-one, he _acts_ like it. He plays Mythomagic and talks to people online _about_ _Mythomagic._ He’s _not_ fifty-seven or already on his second wife or the father of however many kids. He’s--” Will took a breath, his frustration dissipating in the blink of an eye. Instead, he looked almost afraid. “He can’t be, right?”

“Of course not,” Piper told him, a comforting hand on his shoulder. “We’ve barely started, okay? We’ll find something else. We’ll find him.”

“Thanks, Piper,” Will muttered with a tiny smile.

“Look right there,” Leo said, pointing to the side of the computer screen. “Possible relatives, Hazel Levesque. Maybe try to contact her.”

“Let’s look into her a little further first,” Piper suggested, opening up a new tab in her browser and pulling up Facebook. She searched Hazel Levesque, and luckily, only one profile matched. They scrolled through her page for a few moments, seeing mostly pictures of a pretty black woman with a tall Asian man - Frank, if the tags were anything to go by. A single picture, however, is what drew Will’s eye.

“This picture,” Will pointed, and Piper enlarged the image. It looked like Hazel was sitting in a car, the driver’s eyes on the road, one arm extended, hand shoving at the camera. His face, though, was still mostly visible. The caption of the image said, ‘Day out with my loving brother,’ but the brother’s face wasn’t tagged. “That’s Nico, I’m sure of it. Contact her somehow.”

“Okay, I’m gonna send her a message through Facebook with my number,” Piper narrated as she began to click and type, shooting Hazel a simple message. “We have a few questions and we think Hazel would be able to help, please call if you can.”

“Okay, so now what?” Leo asked.

“Now we wait for a response.”

 

It took about an hour - Will made lunch for the three of them and they watched an episode of  _ We Bare Bears _ because that’s what was on when Will turned on the TV - but eventually, Piper received a FaceTime request.

“Hello!” said the voice coming from Piper’s phone. Will glanced over her shoulder to see Hazel’s face taking up almost the entire screen. “I’m Hazel, it’s nice to meet y’all!”

“It’s great to meet you, too, Hazel,” Piper greeted. “I’m Piper, this is Will.”

“I’m Leo,” the last called, appearing over Piper’s other shoulder, camera once again turned on and pointed forward.

“Um, sorry, why do you have a camera?” Hazel asked. “This isn’t some kind of prank call, is it?”

“No, no, sorry about him,” Piper said, shoving Leo away with a  _ get that thing out of here.  _ “We had some questions about your brother? Nico, right?”

“Oh!” Hazel said, seeming a little surprised. “Yeah, Nico’s my half-brother. Sorry, I don’t mean to seem so shocked, but not a lot of people ask about him. He spends an awful lot of time with his computer and not a lot of time meeting other people, unless I drag him outside. Oh, wait, no! That makes him sound-- Um, never mind. What would you like to know?”

“Well, very long story short,” Piper started, “Nico met my friend Will here online about two years ago. Will’s spent a lot of time trying to get into closer contact with him - if I remember correctly, they’re technically in a long-distance relationship - but Nico doesn’t seem to be putting in the same amount of effort. We don’t really have any specific end goal in mind, but they’ve never even successfully video chatted before. So, uh, that’s the background information. We just want to make sure that this isn’t completely fake, I guess? So, do you remember Nico ever talking about someone he was talking to online, or if he’s ever mentioned Will before?”

Hazel paused to think for a moment. “No, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything about Will myself, but like I said before, Nico doesn’t really like to come out of his shell, even around me sometimes. If you want, I could give you his phone number so that you could contact him directly? And if you need anything else, I’d be happy to help.” She read off a number that matched the number that Will had programmed into his phone.

“Thank you so much, Hazel,” Piper said. “I’ll call you if we need any more help.”

They ended the call and immediately Piper dialed Nico’s number. It rang and rang, but nobody answered. When Piper finally gave in - unable to leave a voicemail because the box was full - she received a text from the same number she’d just dialed:  _ Who are you and what do you want? _

“Sounds pleasant,” Piper commented, raising an eyebrow in Will’s direction.

“He doesn’t like talking on the phone,” Will explained. “It makes him anxious.”

“Why is it so hard to get a clear picture of a phone screen?” Leo complained, moving his camera around while pointing it at Piper’s phone.

“Would you get rid of that thing?” Piper demanded. “We’re not  _ actually _ on  _ Catfish.” _

“It’s for the experience!” Leo exclaimed.

“If you don’t cut it out, you’re going to experience a camera up your--” 

“Guys, quit it,” Will cut in. “Can you please just...respond?”

“Right, sorry,” Piper said, and returned to her phone. “Okay, uh, my name’s Piper, I got your number from your sister Hazel, would you mind answering a few questions, send.”

The response came in only a few seconds.  _ Uh, I guess? _

_ Piper: I’m a friend of Will’s. _

_ Nico: Oh _

_ Piper: ...is that a problem? _

_ Nico: No, but… _

_ Nico: I have my reasons for acting the way I have, okay? _

_ Piper: Would you be willing to be slightly less vague? _

_ Nico: Not with somebody I don’t know _

_ Piper: You know what? I think that might be all I need to hear _

Piper sighed, setting her phone down on the table. “So, here are our options,” she started, leaning forward in her seat and folding her hands on the table. “One: you continue talking to this boy who is definitely Nico but may not be telling the whole truth. Or two: we ask Hazel to help us meet him in person. Do you know now or do you want to sleep on it?”

Will met Piper’s gaze, eyes filled with determination. “I want to meet him.”

 

None of them could afford to miss classes, so they had to wait until NYU’s spring break before they flew across the country to Los Angeles. Thankfully, Piper’s “emergency” credit card had a high enough limit that she could afford to fly the three of them - “Why is Leo coming with us again?” - and get a couple of hotel rooms in the city. They arranged a meeting with Hazel before they left so they knew exactly where they should stay, their hotel ending up being only a fifteen minute drive from the park they would be meeting at.

After a refreshing night of sleep - Will had actually ended up staying awake far later than he should have so that he could text Nico even later than usual - they met up with Hazel.

“Nico did end up telling me about you, Will,” Hazel told him, sitting across from him at a picnic table. “I guess after Piper talked to him he figured he should come clean since I already knew a lot of the story. He seems like he really likes you.”

“That’s great to hear,” Will said a little awkwardly. “I, uh, I really like him, too.”

“Aw, you’re so cute,” Hazel said. “I can’t wait for the two of you to meet!”

“Yeah, about that,” Leo cut in. “When do you think we can make that happen?”

Hazel paused to think for a second. “Well, he doesn’t have any classes tomorrow, so I could probably get him to come with me back to this park. Does that work for you guys? Same time, same place?”

“Sounds great, Hazel,” Piper said with a bright smile. “We’ll see you back here tomorrow.”

Hazel left, returning to her own life, and the others returned to their hotel, choosing to all hang out in Will and Leo’s room. Will had thrown himself into the desk chair, swivelling back and forth as Leo set up a camera.

“Tell the world all your feelings, bro,” Leo said, holding up the camera.

“Do I have to?” Will asked, rolling his eyes.

“Just humor him and maybe he’ll stop,” Piper said, laid back on one of the beds with her phone in her hand.

“Fine, okay,” Will said. “What do you want to know?”

“How do you feel about all of this?” Leo asked. “What are you hoping is going to happen tomorrow?”

Will shrugged, staring down at his hands and picking at his nails. “I don’t really know. I’m nervous, I guess. Like, maybe he doesn’t like me the way I like him. Maybe he’s been lying to me this whole time and talking to me was just some game he played when he was bored. I really,  _ really _ hope I’m wrong about all of that. I like him, you know? Like, I  _ really _ like him. I don’t… I don’t know what else you want me to say.”

“What do you think is going to happen tomorrow?” Leo asked again.

“I don’t know,” Will repeated. “I  _ want _ him to be the guy I’ve been talking to the last two years. I want to  _ see  _ him for once, and I don’t want him to back out of this. What if he finds out that he’s meeting us tomorrow, and refuses to go? Piper, can you make sure Hazel doesn’t say anything to him? I don’t want to get this close and have it be for nothing.”

“Yeah, of course,” Piper answered. “I’ll text her right now.”

As Piper sent a text off to Hazel, Will felt his own phone buzz in his pocket.

“Who is that?” Leo asked as Will fished out his phone.

Will hid a tiny smile behind his hand. “It’s Nico. He wants to make sure I’m okay because I stopped texting him really suddenly yesterday.”

“When were you texting him yesterday?” Leo asked, obviously confused since he hadn’t seen Will pull out his phone once the day before.

“After you fell asleep,” Will answered sheepishly. “I didn’t tell him that we’re here, though. I promise.”

“You better answer him,” Piper said. “Don’t give him any reason to get suspicious.”

“Yeah, I will,” he replied, though it was clear that his focus was now almost entirely on his phone.

Piper got up from the bed and got Leo’s attention, gesturing for him to follow her out into the hall.

Leo kept the camera on, still recording as Piper told him, “Will doesn’t  _ just _ like this guy. He’s in love with him, I can tell, and if that doesn’t end up being Nico tomorrow, Will’s gonna be heartbroken. And you better not have any cameras rolling when I punch that guy in the face tomorrow for ruining my best friend’s life, because I don’t want there to be any evidence, got it? God, I’m so pissed  _ already _ and I haven’t even met the guy yet.”

 

When they returned to the park the next day, they were the first to arrive. Will and Piper reclaimed their seats at the same picnic table from the previous day, while Leo took his camera and scanned the area, waiting for Hazel and Nico to arrive.

Will had been texting Nico almost nonstop since the hotel, smiling down at his phone for the last few hours. It was like his anxiety had melted away, but Piper knew that his calm state wasn’t going to last much longer.

Leo hopped onto the bench across the table from Will, once again pointing his camera at his friend. “What’s your boy saying, William?”

Will’s smile didn’t even fade when the looked into the lens. “Uh, this last text says,  _ Hazel’s forcing me to go out with her to meet her new friends, but I don’t want to. If I’m going to meet anyone today, I’d rather it be you.” _

Suddenly, Will’s smile disappeared. “That means they’re on their way, doesn’t it? Wait, he just texted me again.  _ We’re almost there, I’ll text you about these new ‘friends’ later.  _ Oh, god, he’s almost here.”

Will dropped his head onto the table, pulling the hood of his sweatshirt over his head as if it would turn him invisible.

“Car just pulled up,” Piper announced, nodding her head toward the parking lot, and Leo swung the camera in that direction. “Hazel just got out of the car. It looks like she’s talking to someone still inside. The door’s opening, he’s getting out.”

Will moaned something into the table, hands tugging at his hood. “What does he look like? Does he look like the pictures?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Piper said. “He’s too far away and he’s wearing a hood.”

Will shot upright, ripping the hood off his own head, and started patting down his hair. “How do I look? Does my hair look stupid? Do I have anything on my face?”

“You look fine, Will, quit freaking out,” Piper told him.

Then, Will heard a voice that he’d only heard a few times before, but that he would recognize anywhere: “Why do I have to meet your friends? I have enough friends of my own, can’t I just wait in the car?”

“No way, you’re meeting them,” Hazel insisted, before reaching up and ripping the hood off of Nico’s head. “Don’t put your hood up, you’ll make a bad impression.”

“I don’t care about a stupid impression,” Nico muttered, though by now, they were close enough for Will to hear it.

Nico stopped in his tracks when his eyes met Will’s. They were both frozen for a few moments before Will jumped out of his seat and ran around the table until he was standing in front of him.

“Will?” Nico asked softly, and the brightest smile he’d ever seen bloomed across Will’s face.

“Hi, Nico,” Will responded.

Nico lunged forward, arms wrapping around Will’s neck, and Will wound his own arms around the other’s back. “I’m sorry,” Nico started, and icy fear shot up Will’s spine until Nico continued, “If I’d known that I was gonna meet you today, I would’ve put on real clothes. I don’t usually look like garbage, I promise.”

“You don’t look like garbage,” Will told him. “You look amazing, better than I was expecting.”

Nico pulled back just enough that he could look into Will’s eyes. “I’m sorry about that, too. That I never sent any pictures, and that I didn’t try harder to video chat.”

“It’s okay,” Will told him, but Nico shook his head.

“But it  _ shouldn’t _ be,” he insisted. “You’re too good a person, you know that? Thank you for trusting me, even though I’ve been acting like such a jerk.”

“No, you haven’t been,” Will said.

“Yes I have! It’s my fault that we never got to meet sooner, because I’ve been acting stupid and insecure, and I’ve been a  _ jerk. _ So would you stop trying to be so nice and just accept my apology?”

“Yes, I accept your apology,” Will said, bright smile dimming to a soft glow. “I really like you, you know.”

“That’s good, because I really like you, too,” Nico told him.

 

When they parted ways at the end of the day, Will got a text from Nico.  _ So those new ‘friends’ I told you about this morning? There were three of them, but there was this guy that I couldn’t take my eyes off of. He’s perfect, I think I might be falling for him. _

 

* * *

 

Will turned on his phone’s camera, pointing it at himself as he filled a bowl with popcorn. 

“Okay, so, Leo insisted that I do some sort of two month update, like they do on the real  _ Catfish, _ so, uh, here I am, two months later,” he said, and threw the empty popcorn bag in the trash. “Nico and I kept talking online and on our phones, and we FaceTimed a couple of times, but otherwise things didn’t really change in the way we were communicating. I got more snaps of his face though, which was great.”

He grabbed the bowl of popcorn and walked into another room as he continued talking, dropping onto a couch as he said, “But the best part is: we moved in together!” The camera angled to point at Nico, who laughed and shoved at the camera.

“Don’t point that thing at me!” he exclaimed.

“As soon as the semester ended, Nico got his school to transfer his credits to NYU, so he’s starting there in the fall,” Will explained, leaning into Nico’s side. “Also, we’re in love.”

“You’re an idiot,” Nico told him, turning his head to face Will, the two of them now nose-to-nose.

“I’m  _ your _ idiot,” Will said, and darted forward for a kiss.

Nico laughed, shoving the camera away again. “Turn that thing off, the movie’s about to start.”

Will looked directly into the camera and said, “He loves me,” and stopped recording.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm going out to dinner tonight with people that i dont want to interact with and theres nothing i can do about it like i cant even use the "my mom said i cant" excuse bc she won't go along with it and im suffering catfish is the only thing that can calm my soul
> 
> thanks for reading!!!


End file.
